The invention relates to a container assembly, with at least one stackable container which has a box- or bowl-shaped bottom part with an opening, and a lid assigned to the opening of the bottom part and movable relative to the bottom part for either opening or closing the opening, and designed for the vertical stacking of several containers in such a way that the lid of a lower container comes to lie between the bottom parts of the lower container and an upper container positioned immediately above, wherein the container is provided with at least one connecting device which has a movable connecting means, by which the bottom parts of containers resting directly on top of one another may be connected releasably together to obtain a container unit comprised of several containers.
An existing container assembly of this kind known from EP 1 059 240 B1 includes a container with a bottom part and a lid mounted pivotably on the former. This container may be stacked together with several similar containers in such a way that its lid comes to lie beneath the bottom part of a lid resting on top of it. On opposite side end faces of the container there is provided in each case a connecting device comprised of two connecting means in the form of rotating locking bolts, one of which is mounted on a pivotable carrying handle. Depending on the pivoted position of the carrying handle, the lid is locked to or released from the lid by the connecting means of the carrying handle. To connect two stacked containers to one another to obtain a uniformly transportable container unit, the second connecting means may be similarly rotated so that it makes connecting engagement with the bottom part of the upper container. The cohesion between two connected containers is thus effected through the connection of the two bottom parts. If such a container unit is transported by taking hold of the upper container, the pivotable mounting of the connecting means is subjected to a heavy load which can lead to premature wear, but at least requires a very stable and robust and therefore costly design.
A comparable situation exists with the container assembly described in EP 0 555 533 B1, which discloses a stackable container equipped with connecting devices distributed over its periphery, each having connecting means in the form of a pivotable locking tab. Here, differing from EP 1 059 240 B1, a single connecting means is able either to lock just the lid to the bottom part, or to join several containers to an upper container by means of locking engagement to form a container unit. In the case of such a container unit, once again the movable support of the connecting means is subject to a heavy load, so that additional anchoring means are provided on the bottom part and relieve its pivotable mounting means through interaction with the connecting means. Associated with this is an increased cost of manufacture.
Known from DE 44 09 411 A1 is a packing container which may be stacked with others of its kind and made into a container unit through complementary engaging structures on its top and bottom sides, which engage with one another when an upper container is placed on a lower container in a combined insert and turn movement. The engaging structure prevents the upper container from being lifted off in certain areas, in the vicinity of the rear of the container. Fixing of the front section of the container is effected by means of an additional connecting device, which has several connecting means in the form of rotating locking bolts which may be rotated in such a way that they create a connecting engagement between the front sections of the stacked containers. In this packing container, the container opening is arranged at the side and may be closed by means of two cover panels which can be placed over one another and are mounted pivotably on the body of the container. The rotatable connecting means allow simultaneous locking of the cover panels to one another and to the cover panels of the next container above.
The problem of the present invention is to create a container assembly in which the stackable container is equipped with means which may be produced at low cost and which, with simple operation, allow a stable connection of containers stacked on top of one another.